India's defence manufacturing sector is expanding at a record pace, with domestic production and exports reaching new highs. From the Tejas fighter aircraft to INS Vikrant, India is increasingly capable of designing and manufacturing complex military platforms.
However, a closer look beneath these platforms reveals a more complicated picture.
India may have made significant progress in building the aircraft, ships and armoured vehicles themselves, but several of the critical technologies that determine how these systems fly, move, detect threats and operate in combat still come from abroad.
Engines, propulsion systems, radars, advanced materials, electronic warfare equipment, sensors and specialised components remain among the biggest technological gaps in India's Atmanirbhar Bharat defence push.
India's defence production reaches record levels
India's defence production reached an all-time high of Rs 1.78 lakh crore in FY 2025-26, nearly four times the level recorded in 2014-15. Defence exports also touched a record Rs 38,424 crore.
The government has said that nearly 65% of India's defence equipment is now produced within the country, compared with an earlier period when India depended heavily on imports.
Yet India continues to remain one of the world's largest importers of major weapons.
According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, India accounted for 8.2% of global major arms imports between 2021 and 2025, making it the world's second-largest importer after Ukraine during the period.
India's volume of arms imports has declined compared with the previous five-year period, but dependence on foreign suppliers remains significant.
The challenge also goes beyond complete weapons platforms.
International arms transfer databases primarily track major weapons systems. They do not necessarily capture every imported engine, radar component, sensor, electronic system, spare part or specialised material integrated into equipment manufactured in India.
This is where the gap between manufacturing a defence platform and achieving complete technological self-reliance becomes clearer.
India's biggest defence technology gaps
India's Positive Indigenisation Lists provide an indication of where the country's defence manufacturing ecosystem has made progress and where foreign dependence continues.
Across six Positive Indigenisation Lists, 5,417 defence items have been identified for domestic production. Of these, around 2,500 items were listed as already indigenised, while 2,917 remained scheduled for indigenisation.
A significant number of the pending items are parts, components and specialised materials.
The technology-wise distribution shows that India has made greater progress in conventional mechanical and structural hardware than in several advanced technologies.
Only around 6% of propulsion, engine and transmission-related items were listed as already indigenised. The figure was around 8% for weapons and ammunition and 14% for radar, communications, electronic warfare and navigation technologies.
The level of indigenisation stood at approximately 25% for sensors and optronics and 33% for electronics, avionics and control systems.
In comparison, mechanical and structural hardware showed much stronger progress, with around 69% of such items listed as indigenised.
The pattern highlights a critical issue for India's defence sector.
Building the physical structure of an aircraft, warship or military vehicle is one challenge. Developing the technologies that power it, guide it, detect threats and control its weapons is another.
Sixth Positive Indigenisation List targets critical defence systems
India's latest Positive Indigenisation List, notified in August 2026, includes 405 strategically important defence items with an estimated business potential of Rs 3,070 crore.
These include subsystems, components, spares and raw materials associated with major platforms such as the LCA Tejas, Su-30MKI, helicopters, tanks, missiles, radars, sonars and satellite communication systems.
However, the Positive Indigenisation Lists do not represent a simple real-time measure of India's overall defence self-reliance.
A small component and a strategically critical subsystem can each count as one item, despite having vastly different technological or financial significance.
By May 2026, the Ministry of Defence said that 3,204 items from the first five lists had already been indigenised.
The data therefore provides a broad picture of where India's indigenisation efforts are concentrated, rather than an exact measurement of the indigenous content of every military platform.
Navy faces a major indigenisation challenge
A closer examination of the defence items also suggests that the challenge varies across India's armed forces.
Air Force-linked platforms account for a large share of items already indigenised, with 1,837 out of 2,447 entries listed as completed.
The Navy presents a sharper contrast.
Of 1,211 Navy-linked items, around 1,162 were still scheduled for indigenisation, indicating a significant pipeline of components and technologies that remain to be developed domestically.
The Army falls between the two, while several hundred items are associated with tri-services requirements.
India has made substantial progress in shipbuilding and the construction of major naval platforms, but several critical systems used inside those platforms continue to depend on foreign technology.
India reduces dependence on Russia but imports remain important
India's defence procurement strategy has changed significantly over the past decade.
The country has reduced its dependence on Russia as a single supplier and diversified its defence partnerships with countries such as France, Israel and the United States.
According to SIPRI data, Russia's share of India's arms imports declined from around 70% during 2011-15 to 49% during 2016-20 and approximately 40% during 2021-25.
France's share increased to 29%, while Israel accounted for around 15%.
The government has also increased its focus on domestic procurement.
Around Rs 1.39 lakh crore, or nearly 75% of India's capital acquisition budget for 2026-27, has been earmarked for domestic defence industries.
Global supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions have further strengthened India's push for import substitution and indigenous defence manufacturing.
But reducing dependence on one supplier does not automatically mean eliminating foreign dependence altogether.
India's defence supply chain has become more diversified, but several advanced technologies continue to come from outside the country.
The R&D challenge behind India's defence technology gap
One of the biggest obstacles to deeper defence indigenisation is research and development.
India's defence R&D expenditure has increased significantly in absolute terms, rising from around Rs 13,716 crore in 2014-15 to approximately Rs 29,100 crore in 2026-27.
However, its share of the overall defence budget has declined.
According to PRS Legislative Research, the proportion of the defence budget allocated to research and development has fallen from around 4.7% to an estimated 3.7% over the same period.
India also continues to face challenges in high-technology manufacturing and basic scientific research.
Critical technologies including aero engines, propulsion modules, advanced materials, microelectronics, sensors and radio-frequency seekers remain difficult areas for domestic development.
India's overall R&D spending also remains relatively low compared with major global powers.
Department of Science and Technology data shows that India spent around 0.84% of GDP on research and development in 2023-24, compared with China's 2.58% in 2023.
For advanced defence technologies, long-term investment in fundamental research is often as important as manufacturing capacity.
Tejas Mk1A shows the limits of platform-level indigenisation
The Tejas fighter programme is one of India's biggest achievements in indigenous defence manufacturing.
India has developed domestic capabilities in aircraft design, production, radar technology, avionics and several other systems.
The latest order for 97 Tejas Mk1A aircraft is expected to have indigenous content of more than 64%, including systems such as the UTTAM AESA radar, Swayam Raksha Kavach and indigenous control surface actuators.
Yet the aircraft still depends on a foreign engine.
The Tejas Mk1A uses the GE Aerospace F404 engine, manufactured by the United States-based company.
Engine supply delays have also affected the aircraft's delivery schedule.
The problem illustrates a larger challenge facing India's defence sector: even when most of a platform is designed and manufactured domestically, dependence on one critical foreign component can create a production bottleneck.
India's long-running Kaveri engine programme attempted to develop an indigenous fighter engine but was unable to achieve the performance required for frontline fighter aircraft.
The country is now exploring new approaches to developing advanced propulsion technologies, including international partnerships and private-sector participation.
But the most sensitive technologies associated with jet engines, particularly advanced materials and hot-section design, remain among the most difficult technologies to acquire or develop.
INS Vikrant is indigenous, but key systems have foreign origins
India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, demonstrates another dimension of defence self-reliance.
The government has said that the aircraft carrier has around 76% indigenous content.
However, several important systems used on the platform have foreign origins.
These include GE LM2500 gas turbines from the United States, MF-STAR radar technology associated with Israel, long-range radar systems from Italy and other foreign-origin aviation and shipboard equipment.
The carrier also operates aircraft and helicopters with international origins, including MiG-29K fighter jets, Kamov-31 helicopters and MH-60R helicopters.
This does not negate the significance of India's achievement in designing and constructing an aircraft carrier.
Instead, it highlights how indigenous capability can exist at different levels within the same platform.
A country may be capable of designing the hull, structure and integration architecture of a warship while still depending on foreign suppliers for turbines, radars, sensors or specialised aviation systems.
Propulsion remains India's biggest defence dependency
The dependence on foreign technology is visible across several major Indian defence platforms.
The HAL HTT-40 uses a Honeywell engine, while the HJT-36 Yashas is powered by the Russian-origin AL-55I engine.
The Dhruv, Rudra and LCH Prachand helicopter family uses the Shakti engine developed in partnership with France's Safran.
India's naval fleet also relies on foreign-origin propulsion systems.
Project 17A frigates use GE LM2500 gas turbines, while Project 15B destroyers use gas turbines with Ukrainian origins.
The Arjun Mk1A tank relies on a German MTU engine and RENK transmission system.
Even indigenous airborne surveillance systems have foreign dependencies. India's NETRA airborne early warning and control platform is built around Brazil's Embraer EMB-145 aircraft.
Across aircraft, helicopters, warships and armoured vehicles, the same pattern repeatedly emerges.
India has increasingly developed the ability to build the platform itself, but the engines, turbines, powerpacks and other critical technologies inside those platforms often remain foreign.
China shows how long technological self-reliance can take
China provides an important, though uncomfortable, comparison.
According to SIPRI data, China's share of global major arms imports fell dramatically from around 12% during 1999-2003 to just 1.3% during 2021-25.
The decline reflects decades of investment in domestic defence research, manufacturing and technology development.
China also relied heavily on foreign technology in the past, particularly from Russia, and spent years developing its own versions of imported military systems.
However, even China has struggled with advanced propulsion technologies.
Between 2016 and 2025, turbofan engines accounted for a significant share of China's arms imports, with Russia remaining a major supplier.
China's development of indigenous WS-series jet engines has reduced some of that dependence, but the process has taken decades.
The lesson for India is that genuine technological self-reliance cannot be achieved simply by replacing imported platforms with domestically manufactured versions.
The harder challenge is developing mastery over the technologies that sit inside those platforms.
India's next Atmanirbhar challenge lies inside the machine
India's defence indigenisation programme has already transformed the country's manufacturing capabilities.
The country can now design and build fighter aircraft, aircraft carriers, missiles, artillery systems, satellites, helicopters and increasingly sophisticated military equipment.
Defence production and exports are at record levels, while domestic procurement has become a central pillar of India's national security strategy.
But the next stage of the Atmanirbhar Bharat defence push will require progress beyond platforms.
The real test lies in developing advanced propulsion systems, indigenous jet engines, high-performance materials, radars, sensors, microelectronics, electronic warfare systems and other technologies that determine the performance of modern weapons.
India's defence sector has made substantial progress in building the machine.
The bigger challenge now is mastering what makes that machine work.
